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Football Just Got Smarter

Sports wearables help football teams hit the goal.

Sports wearables, which monitor everything from speed to the heart rate of each player, are a growing field. In fact, FiFa is looking to establish a global wearables standard to ensure that all professional teams use the same data-tracking technology for training purposes.

Currently, there are a number of products available in the market that are already being used by major clubs and amateurs. Among the best are the following:

Zepp Play Soccer – This is a small tracker that slips inside a calf sleeve and paired via Bluetooth to a smartphone. Using a soccer-oriented algorithm, it provides the player detailed stats on number of kicks, distance travelled, kick speed, maximum speed, number of sprints, and total time of game play. The device was designed to provide players with raw data to determine what specific skills they need to improve.

OptimEye – OptimEye was developed by Catapult Sport, which was recently named the 12th most innovative company in the world. The company’s OptimEye range are recognised as the state of the art in wearable athlete monitoring technology and are now being used in more than 20 sports at elite level for fitness, tactical, rehabilitation and technical analysis. The Catapult range includes the following models:

· G5 – This is the world’s first goalkeeper monitor that is currently being used by over 400 sports organisations around the world. It measures accelerations/decelerations, dives, jumps, changes of direction, repeat high intensity efforts, and time to recovery.

· OptimEye S5 – This is a military-tested product and is now the world’s first GNSS monitor for team sports. It is the only athlete tracking monitor that measures collisions.

· OptimEye T5 – This allows both indoors and outdoors tracking and has been proven to have 10-15cm absolute positioning accuracy.

Viper Pod – This is a performance monitoring tool currently being used by the NFL, Premiere League, La Liga and NBA. It tracks distance, speed, acceleration, heart rate and load distance.

Adidas miCoach – The Adidas Smart Ball features a built-in sensor that analyses the player’s kicks and provides instant feedback on power, spin, trajectory and strike. It also offers tips on how players can learn to control, strike and manipulate the ball like a pro.